


Fight

by vectacular



Series: A-to-Z of Firestorm! [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22600735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vectacular/pseuds/vectacular
Summary: Following Takeru one day leads to Yusaku seeing a new side of hiscrushbest friend.
Relationships: Fujiki Yuusaku/Homura Takeru
Series: A-to-Z of Firestorm! [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537111
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Fight

**Author's Note:**

> The first idea I had for this as this fic was established relationship, but then I changed it because *clenches fists* the pining. I love it.

Yusaku’s not one to pry, especially into his… friend’s… lives. They have their own thing, and he does his own. It doesn’t matter, unless one of them brings it up, or needs help with something, which he can do. 

Takeru’s a special case, mainly because Takeru’s his _best_ friend. Which is still a weird thing to think about. Plus, the romantic feelings. He also doesn’t like to think about that as well. Ai says his feelings are _cliche, but sweet_.

For as long as he’s known Takeru in person, he’s always had days where he’s gone off to do things. Yusaku doesn’t really think about it much, even with Takeru showing up the next day with bandages on his face. Sometimes he saw them covering his stomach once, the white peeking out from his shirt while he jumped around in excitement at some special deal going on. 

He always squashes down the questions he wants to ask, figuring if Takeru was in trouble, he’d talk about, considering how open he is. 

“Ah, I have to go,” Takeru looks up from his phone with a smile. He gets up and waves, and Yusaku gives a small wave, watching Takeru go. 

“We should follow him,” Ai says from behind him, and he turns around, staring at the ignis in shock. Mainly because he wasn’t there a second ago. 

“ _What_!?” 

“You and me,” Ai points at Yusaku and then himself, “should see what he’s up to,” Ai points in the direction Takeru left. “You can’t tell me you aren’t curious.” 

“I mean―isn’t that―a breach of privacy, or something,” he stammers, and Ai raises an eyebrow. “He could reveal what he’s doing anytime!” Yusaku frowns at the defensive tone in his voice. “He could.” 

“Pfft, boring,” Ai waves a hand, “and really, after all this time, and we don’t know still?” 

Yusaku sighs and rubs his forehead, running out of token protests. It’s hard to argue against Ai when he knows Ai’s just voicing the thoughts which have been in his head ever since he figured it out. “Okay.”

* * *

Before Ai rushed off to follow Takeru, Yusaku reminded him that they’d both be easily recognisable to Takeru if they saw him. Reluctantly, Ai agrees and they make a stop home. With Yusaku in his hoodie and sunglasses, and Ai in _boring_ (Ai’s words) clothes, as well as a cap with his hair in a bun, Yusaku deems them ready. 

With Ai following Takeru’s phone GPS, which, he thinks the ignis is doing that at least, considering his SOLtis allows him to be connected to the internet easily. Yusaku just follows behind Ai as they go to where Takeru’s phone is. “Says he’s in here,” Ai gestures to the door of the plain building they’re in front of. 

The building isn’t in the _nicest_ part of town, so Yusaku smothers his worry as they look around. Around an alley, they find a guy, some sort of guard by the plain black clothes and posture, in front of another door. The bouncer puts a hand up as they come closer, “sorry, restricted.” 

“Is there any other way we can get in?” He asks before Ai can open his mouth. 

The bouncer nods to the right, “entrance is that way. Better have cash,” _cash?_ He frowns, wondering what Takeru’s got himself tangled up in. 

Ai flicks down his own sunglasses and winks at the bouncer, who, to Yusaku’s horror, _blushes_. “Thanks,” Ai purrs.

“Let’s go,” Yusaku scowls and takes Ai’s arm, pulling him away from the bouncer and towards the way that was indicated. 

“I just said _thanks_ ,” Ai whines. 

“I don’t want to see you flirting, it’s disturbing,” he mutters. “I don’t have cash.” 

“What’s wrong with me flirting?” Ai pouts and puts his hands into pants pockets, “also, I have cash!” 

Stopping, he stares at the cash. “How’d you get that?” 

The ignis shrugs, “the SOLtis can make it.” 

Yusaku rubs his forehead, “alright. Sure,” he frowns, _have to find out what the fuck’s up with this SOLtis tech one day_ , he thinks. But onto more pressing matters, like what Takeru’s up to. The building seems to be very wide, considering they’ve only just reached the other side, with a whole crowd of people, and another bouncer. 

Time passes slowly as people go into the building, and Yusaku finds himself staring at the grey building until it’s finally their turn. “1,200 yen,” the bouncer says, Yusaku sighs and takes the money from Ai, giving the amount to the bouncer. 

“Hi,” Ai says, and Yusaku rolls his eyes, dragging Ai into the door. 

“Nope.” 

“It was just _hi_!” Ai screeches as they join the crowd in walking down a long hallway. 

“It’s gross,” he scowls and focuses on Ai’s arm. 

“It is _not_. Are you jealous?” 

“Of course not,” he scoffs, “it’s like… watching Kusanagi flirt, or something.” 

“Ohhhhhhhhh,” Ai hums, and he can almost feel the ignis nod as they start to go down some stairs. “It’s a familial thing. I thought it was an exaggeration in all those soap operas I watched, but humans really do…“

Ai continues to talk to himself as they reach a huge room, with a huge cage in the centre. The sudden onslaught of noise made it so he wouldn’t be able to hear Ai anyway, but he soon adjusts to it. Ai takes the lead, pulling them onto some rising stairs and chairs around the edge of the room. They manage to get a seat at the top, near the stairs, and Ai gives him a concerned look. 

“I’m fine,” he says, smiling at the ignis gratefully, “thanks.” Frowning, he starts to look around for Takeru, but only finding… people. Lots of people. None of them familiar. And the cage in the centre, more bouncers near the cage… 

“I found your boyfriend,” Ai says dryly, pointing towards the cage. 

“He’s not my boyfr―“ His eyes widen, mouth going dry as he looks into the cage. 

In the cage, leaning on the bars, is Takeru. With only some white shorts on with flames on the bottom, and then what looks like bandages from his hands and up near his elbows. The glaring lights show off all the muscles that Takeru’s apparently _very_ good at hiding. Takeru stretches his arms, and Yusaku can see that he’s not wearing his glasses.

He only realises he’s gaping when a hand clicks his jaw shut. Ai giggles, but Yusaku can’t tear away his eyes to look at the probably smug look on his ignis’ face. 

“Your boy’s the undefeated champion it seems,” Ai says, and Yusaku grinds his jaw so it doesn’t fall open again.

“ _What_?” 

“I thought you would’ve been _distracted_ by Takeru, and no doubt missed the _other_ guy in the cage, who’s the commentator and said that Takeru’s the undefeated champion and will be facing someone tonight.”

Yusaku looks away from Takeru to see that another guy is in there with a mic, unlike Takeru, “oh.” His face starts to feel hot, which doesn’t go away as he sees Takeru smile and do a victory sign for some photos, based off the flashes in front of him. 

There’s an uproar in the crowd as the cage opens, and the commentator announces Takeru’s challenger. The challenger who’s a big, angry-looking man who towers over Takeru. 

Takeru, oddly enough, doesn’t seem phased. 

After the commentator counts down, a bell is struck, and then the opponent strikes Takeru suddenly. Gasping, Yusaku’s not even aware he’s moved until a hand grabs onto his arm, pulling him back down to his seat. 

“Pretty sure you’d end up more beat up than Takeru ever would be if you tried,” Ai says dryly, patting him on the arm. 

* * *

The fight seems to be forever and no time at all, with Takeru’s win eclipsing the sheer terror (and _something else_ , which he’s going to put out of his mind) that Yusaku felt. Through his dazed mind as they walk home, Yusaku knows that Takeru’s victorious grin will be featured in his dreams. ~~And Takeru’s muscles.~~

Meeting Takeru the next day at Kusanagi’s truck, it was hard to look him in the eyes, mainly due to his _vivid_ imagination. Takeru greeted him with a simple white bandage on his left cheek, where he was hit by his opponent last night. 

Before, he thought of the bandages with worry and concern, which he still does, but after seeing Takeru’s win, as well as his victorious smile, a part of him breathes easier with knowing that the other boy can take care of himself. 

Of course, Ai praising Takeru for being able to be a _good_ bodyguard for him and other such things before he went to bed last night did annoy him a bit. He woke up to a message around midnight that Ai left and wanted him to know, and he’d rather not know where he went. There was a winking emoji and thinly veiled innuendo, he got more info than he needed to know from _that_ alone. 

“What’re you thinking about?” Takeru asks over his coffee, and he startles. 

“Uh―nothi―“

“―Probably this interesting cage match we saw yesterday,” a voice says behind him, and Yusaku wonders if he somehow summoned the ignis with his thoughts. Takeru stills. “Speaking of,” Ai purrs and Yusaku tenses as Ai rests an arm on his shoulder, “ _reigning_ champion, _so_ interesting. Why didn’t you tell us?” 

Takeru pales, and it seems like everything stops as he looks at Takeru. 

“It’s fine, Takeru,” Yusaku says softly. “We just wanted to know, and so we…“ he shrugs Ai’s arm off.

“I―I’m sorry,” Takeru says, voice so quiet he has to strain his ears to hear it. 

“We did follow you, so I’m sorry too,” he offers. Ai scoffs, which he easily ignores. 

“I―you―“ Takeru frowns, “you don’t― you don’t see me as any different, right?” Takeru grips his coffee cup tightly. 

“Of course not!” Aside from his imagination running with the Takeru he saw last night, nothing’s changed. 

Takeru relaxes, breathing a huge sigh of relief as he flops onto the tiny table. With Takeru distracted, Ai elbows him in his shoulder, and he gives the ignis a confused look. Ai makes gestures, which seem to end with his hands pressing together. Yusaku just looks confused and Ai sighs as well, shaking his head.

* * *

Nothing changes really, aside from Takeru’s look of guilt after he makes an excuse, remembering that Yusaku knows, but too in the habit of saying them before running. 

There’s also lots of apologies from Takeru, which he always brushes off. 

One day, after exams at school, Takeru stays over. Due to Ai and Roboppi’s SOLtis forms, they usually take whatever available space there is. Although, Ai’s winking comment that _they should just share his bed_ probably has ulterior motives, which he’d rather ignore outright. 

Although, considering there’s only a small amount of space between their bodies on his small bed, he can’t help it. He’s crossing his arms, staring at Takeru’s mirrored position. 

“Why do you do it?” He asks, mainly to stop his mind from latching onto the warmth that radiates from Takeru. The other boy opens his eyes and gives him a confused sound, “the, uh… fighting?” He bites his lip, wondering if Takeru’s going to answer. 

“Ah,” Takeru blinks and scrunches his nose, thinking. “Well, the money. It pays well. I get a lot for being, um,” he shrugs, face embarrassed, “champion. I do get offered double sometimes, to toss the fight, but I never do.” 

“Oh,” Yusaku breathes.

“Living in Den City isn’t cheap, and I don’t want my grandparent’s to pay for everything,” Takeru blows a lock of hair out of his face, “plus. I enjoy the fighting. It’s _fun_ , and I’m good at it. It’s just… something I do,” Takeru finishes quietly. 

Yusaku gulps, mind going back to the look on Takeru’s face the night he found out, “good.”

“You don’t think it’s, weird or something?” 

“Can’t exactly say we’re both normal in our day-to-day lives,” he points out. Takeru giggles, and he’s very aware as Takeru moves infinitesimally closer. 

There’s silence, with only the cicadas from outside, and Yusaku closes his eyes, feeling the bed move. “Yusaku,” he blinks, pulse jumping as he finds Takeru even closer to him, and even with only the light from outside, that Takeru’s eyes are intense, pinning him in place. “I…“

Takeru frowns, struggling with what he wants to say. “You?” His hands on the bedsheets clench, holding down the urge to touch the other boy. He can feel Takeru’s breath on his face, considering they’re sharing his pillow, and now he’s at the stage of throttling his want to touch. Next level will be imagining suffocating it with a pillow.

Takeru huffs, closing his eyes before opening them, “will… will you come to see my next match? It’s Saturday.” 

“Sure,” he croaks. 

* * *

Going back to the same building as before, Yusaku wishes he thought of wearing more of a disguise. Just so he could feel comfortable in the crowds. 

At least he managed to find a place close to where he was last time, which he’s okay with. And he did manage to mentally prepare himself for all the noise and people, unlike last time, which also helps.

Though, when the cage fight starts to go down, the crowd goes _wild_ and he has to stand up to watch it over the cheering people. Takeru’s fighting seems decidedly more different from the last one he saw, even though he doesn’t know much about this. 

Blocking out the cheers, he focuses on Takeru, who reminds him more of the Soulburner he sees in Vrains. Usually, there’s always some sort of difference between them, but tonight he can see it in the way Takeru is, with that fierce determination and drive. _What’s got him fired up?_

The match tonight is two rounds, and unsurprisingly, Takeru wins both of them, easily dodging his opponent’s blows. The second match ends with Takeru climbing up the cage and jumping off and onto his opponent, apparently knocking the guy out. Well, there’s medics in the cage now, carrying the guy out on a stretcher, so.

The crowd, to put it mildly, goes ballistic. 

Which makes it hard for him to move through the bodies, towards the cage. He knocks into _so_ many people, almost trips twice, and then ends up faceplanting into the cage once he reaches it. It stings. 

Rubbing his face, he hears Takeru’s bright “Yusaku!” and waves, hoping Takeru hadn’t seen that. Takeru runs out of the cage’s door, and Yusaku considers slinking back into the crowd to deal with his mortification at the other’s sparkling grin. 

“Hi,” he says. And then Takeru’s bandage-wrapped hands take his own and pull him away from the cage, and into a room which has a laminated _NO GUESTS BEYOND THIS AREA_ sign taped onto it. Takeru talks with a bouncer in front of it, though Yusaku can’t hear it over the rushing blood in his ears. Or the crowd, still rowdy. Maybe both. 

Takeru nods at the bouncer and then pulls Yusaku into the room. Which seems to be a locker room, most likely for fighters like Takeru. The fluorescent lights are bright after a room where the brightest light was on a cage, but at least it’s blocked out a majority of the sound from the people, and he breathes a sigh of relief. 

“You were―“ his words, along with his train of thoughts, screech to a halt as lips cover his. Takeru’s lips. And Takeru’s hands moving to cup his face? After the initial alarm, he hesitantly kisses back, unsure of what to do. Even the muffled sounds of the other room seem to quiet as he reaches up to touch Takeru’s face. 

At that, Takeru steps back, breaking the kiss, and Yusaku immediately feels colder. Opening his eyes, he sees Takeru blushing. “I―I’ve wanted to do that for a while and―and―since Link Vrains was quiet I didn’t―“ Takeru mumbles, the hands on his face caressing his cheeks softly, “and―I don’t―you’re not mad?“

Yusaku furrows his brows, “no? Why would I be mad?” _Why do you keep thinking I’ll be mad at you?_

“I―I kissed you and I―“

“I’ve wanted to kiss you, too,” he confesses, interrupting. Takeru pauses, mouth opening and shutting. 

“Yeah?” Takeru asks quietly. Yusaku nods, and he feels Takeru’s fingers brush down behind his ears. 

“We should do it again,” he mutters, face feeling hot the split second after he says it. 

“Even though I’m all sweaty?” Takeru scrunches his nose, and Yusaku rolls his eyes before leaning in for another kiss.

**[Fin]**

**Author's Note:**

> Ai: *making absurd gestures for Yusaku to finally confess to Takeru, who doesn't get it* What did I do to deserve this.
> 
> I talked about this ages ago and now I've finally written it... though I love writing about Takeru being like this because the way Yusaku reacts to it is always gold. 
> 
> This took ages because I've been watching things and listening to things ~~Magnus Archives~~ and so I've been writing this between those. And my other set of A-Z's... Then again, the only pressure on these fics are me @ me, which is also more than enough. 
> 
> Please feed this writer with plenty of comments and kudos~ ♥ ♥ Getting comments out of you guys.... pulling teeth is easier. Why is the fandom like this. 
> 
> [Firestorm discord~](https://discord.gg/dhpZN8N) | [Tumblr](https://lenreli.tumblr.com/post/190699109155/next-in-my-series-27k-link) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/lenreli/status/1225799141768318979)


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